Nano dreams yet to come true

"Semiconductor lithography is coming to a critical point," said Chang Shinn-jen (張信真), the head of ITRI's digital image material department. "We're going to have to rethink the way we make chips if we're going to make them any smaller."

Small packages

Still smaller chips are just one necessity that may give birth to further nanotech invention. Drexler outlines several other areas that could prove equally necessary. Like Feynman, he sees a need for nano-sized medical applications; tiny robots that could walk into blood vessels to clear clogged arteries or be programmed to identify and eliminate HIV cells. Molecular manufacturing would allow for materials to be constructed without flaws, greatly enhancing their strength. And the manufacturing process would be emissions-free.

But perhaps the greatest necessity, Drexler argues, will be for governments to keep ahead of other governments developing nanotech weapons. At the same time, he says, such weapons would not have to be lethal, but could be designed to incapacitate an opponent.

Whether or not such devices will be developed and produced in Taiwan remains to be seen. The government has allocated NT$8.43 billion to the National Science and Technology Program for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology up to this year. Another NT$12 billion is to be spent through 2008. That's a fraction of the US$2.4 trillion that is estimated to be spent on nanotech development worldwide through 2014, but the Taiwanese government prides itself on being the current world leader in per-capita nanotech spending.

For now, as Stephen Chung said, the industry must prove its viability.

"Our government has, for several years now, wanted Taiwan to become a world leader in research and development," Chung said. "Nanotechnology is definitely an area where we could do that." In the meantime, he pointed out, we're going to see a lot of products like faster baseballs, fog-free car windows, longer-life batteries, and of course, underwear that stays fresh.

But tucked into one booth of the exhibition hall is a product that isn't very small at all compared with what's to be found in neighboring booths, but might indeed help insure that the coming nanotech revolution starts in Taiwan.

It's a comic book, the adventures of Nano BlasterMan (奈米超人), produced by the Ministry of Education and to be made available to all sixth graders starting next year. He swoops down from the sky and blasts things to microscopic sizes in order to solve problems and save the day.

"The idea is get kids excited about the future by teaching them that some of these ideas that seem wild now are actually possible in principle," said a Ministry of Education representative, "Hopefully some of our school kids will want to grow up to be Nano BlasterMan."